POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

A Little About Interactive Voice Marketing (IVRs)

I used to work for a big old technology/interactive mktg company (publicly-traded) - the experience was very excellent, though the company was run like any large corporation. Which is to say, it was often maddening to get anything done beyond the department in my charge. A little like turning around a tanker on the high-seas. Anyway, during my tenure there (about 3.5 years or so, I collected a good amount of knowledge about the Real Estate industry and related-technologies (web and interactive voice response systems (or IVRs)).

IVR systems work like this:

1) Agent "lists" a house with the MLS, on behalf of seller
2) Agent writes up a description of the listing (the house)
3) through the power of technology, the description arrives to a sound-booth
4) "voice talent" (that is someone who formerly worked for radio in some capacity) reads the script into a recording device
5) again, through the power of technology, the recording is shipped to the IVR server
6) Realtor(r) places IVR phone number on signage and in all manner of documentation relating to the listing
7) people driving by or checking out the listing online, call the number to listen to the recorded message
8) ...

You get the picture. Needless to say, when a Voice Talent is recording some hundred of these per day, the day can get long. And if you have ever met a Realtor(r), you know some of them are lacking in a severe way when it comes to prose. This means a lot of the descriptions - written - delivered to the sound booth (where the voice talent site or stands all day with headphones on) - are pure crap. Misspellings, f***ed up conjugations, and colloquialisms abound. It is the Voice Talent's job to modify on-the-fly (make sense of the written description).

Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes the Voice Talent is not paying particular attention. Sometimes he can't make sense of the script at all - requiring multiple takes. And sometimes the bad takes and the inattentiveness make it to the IVR System. Meaning, Mary the Realtor(r) panics. Understandably.

This first take is self-explanatory. Royal Bullsh*t

"noooooooo!"

The second one reflects a description of a shower (very spacious) that some Realtor(r) sent in to be recorded and it was - and made it to the IVR.

That will accommodate ... and a what?

Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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